A collection of short stories, articles, and poems intended to entertain, inform, and consider.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

A HALLOWEEN SWEET TREAT

It’s that time of year again, when all the ghosts, ghouls,
and monsters come out to play.

Some come out to Trick or Treat; others come out to take
your sweets.

Some come out to have a fun day; others come out to steal
you away.

Some come out to change their appearance; others come out to
run interference.

***

Halloween is the time of year to get silly, to get scared,
or to scare, and to get creative. When I was a child running from house to
house on Halloween night (back in the Dark Ages) I never even had a costume to
wear. I would just grab my pillow case and go, and when I got home afterward, I
would count how many apples I had… Ewwww, apples, I know, I know.

As the
years went by, people got a little more caring and started to make Halloween
more fun for the kids. Houses got scarier, Jack ‘o Lanterns were carved with
artistry, and people bought an assortment of candy to give out. Of course, by
that time I was too old for Halloween, so I’d end up sneaking a candy or two after
my siblings would go to sleep. (Shhhh, don’t tell.)

When my son got old enough to go Trick or Treating, he wasn’t
really into candy, so we would just go for a walk around the block to see how
the neighborhood was decorated. Sure, he would stop at a few houses, but he was
never really into it. He never went
every year and now, at 15, he’d rather stay home and watch a scary movie. It’s
what we’d all rather do. I still decorate my house with a few scary pieces of décor,
and we still carve a pumpkin, but the thing I enjoy most is making (and eating)
this:

Here’s what you need:

Your fudge recipe, or if you don’t have one, just use the recipe found on a can of Fry’s brand cocoa. Follow the instructions on the can. This
will be your base, or your subsoil.

I usually make the fudge in the afternoon, so that it is
thoroughly cooled for decorating later that evening.

While that’s cooling, make a trip to the store for the rest
of the ingredients.

Use chocolate frosting to cover the fudge, that’s your mud.
Then sprinkle it with Oreo cookie crumbs, that’s your dirt.

Use blobs of Cool Whip for the ghosts and give him Chocolate
Chip eyes.

Use Crispy Crunch bars to make headstones, and use a couple
of Mr. Big bars, cut in slices, for the pathway going through the cemetery.

Icing can be used to write on the headstones and candy
pumpkins can be bought at any grocery store in the bulk food isle.